2026 is a BIG year for Belper and the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site. It is the 250th anniversary of the first cotton mill opening in Belper. It will be 300 years since the birth of Jedidiah Strutt, the man who transformed Belper into the world’s first cotton mill town. It is also 25 years since the Derwent Valley Mills were inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage Site list!
We’d like everyone to get involved to help us celebrate, create, reflect and learn in and around Belper and the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage Site throughout the year. Derwent Valley Mills have already had a public meeting to share ideas around the Strutt’s and their legacy with everything from re-establishing Belper traditions like the donkey parades, horticultural shows or bicycle parades to celebrating Belper through food, music, dance and song. They want to link to the things important to the town, its story and its place in the World Heritage Site from water-power and sustainability, to its landscape, mills, architecture and global links, including to enslaved plantation workers providing the cotton. They’ve got a steering group of people from organisations from across the community to help shape the activities, so now it’s time for next steps!
Here in Milford & Makeney this celebration is, if anything, even more meaningful. Most of the buildings and amenities in Milford were built and set up by The Strutts and without them Milford wouldn’t exist in its current form (see the history section of this website for more details).
Already there will be a Belper 250 theme to the May Day celebrations in Milford & Makeney this year and The Bridge View Allotments, set up by The Strutts nearly 200 years ago, are planning a celebration this summer. There will be an historical a walk around “the dark side”, Milford’s west bank, on Sunday 22nd March 10:30am and a talk about the Milford Trespassers called Getting Crabs, Throwing Stones and Other Offences: 19th Century Trespassers in Milford, in the No.28 café on the Market Square in Belper, on 30th August 6pm. Both these are by Milford resident Jane Whitaker. Booking details can be found here: Tours & Events – Strutts North Mill Belper.
If you would like to get involved, or know of other events in Milford around the Belper 250 celebrations, please let the webmaster (davidmoretonchevinbrae@gmail.com) know.
You can also keep up to date with the wider Belper 250 plans on the website here.
